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Bristol grocer fined £14,500 for selling substandard produce (20 December 2016)
Date: 20/12/2016
A Bristol-based fresh produce retailer has been ordered to pay more than £14,500 for displaying, offering for sale and selling rotten fruit and vegetables that failed to meet minimum quality standards, after a two-year investigation by the Rural Payments Agency’s (RPA) Horticultural Marketing Inspectors (HMI).
Hazrat Mohammad Ahmadzai – director of Fruit & Veg Planet (SW) Ltd –
and store manager Janatgul Easakhil were both charged by Bristol Magistrates’ Court on 8 December 2016.
A final HMI inspection conducted on 3 March 2016 found 12 displays in breach of the EU marketing rules for fresh produce quality and labelling, including rotten grapes and aubergines.
Ahmadzai and Easakhil both failed to appear before the court and were found guilty of all charges.
They were each fined £2,500, £1,342 costs and a £170 victim surcharge – the company was fined £5,000, £1,343 costs and a £170 victim surcharge.
RPA Operations Director, Alison Johnson, said:
“Concerted efforts were made by HMI to work closely with the business through face-to-face meetings, verbal warnings and formal written notices, all aimed at achieving improved compliance from the business.
“Unfortunately such advice is not always heeded – and when all other options have been exhausted, we will resort to the use of criminal sanction to bring about a required change in behaviour.”
Duncan Lewis Criminal Lawyers – Public Protection Offences
Duncan Lewis criminal lawyers can advise at any stage of a public protection offence, including charges involving selling counterfeit goods, selling illicit alcohol or tobacco products, weights and measures issues, mislabelling offences, food hygiene breaches, selling restricted items to minors, breaches of health and safety regulations and selling substandard produce.
There are Duncan Lewis offices across England and Wales and in most major cities – and Duncan Lewis can advise on police raids and premises inspections by Trading Standards or local authority fraud teams.
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